• Burmese
Monday, October 2, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
27 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Features
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Features
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Burma

China Reacts to Burma’s Nascent Media Reform

by Patrick Boehler
August 22, 2012
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
China Reacts to Burma’s Nascent Media Reform

The Burmese media covers Aung San Suu Kyi’s election campaign on April 1. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

2.8k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The end to pre-publication censorship in Burma has generally been welcomed by Chinese journalists, but has also led China’s leading right-wing daily to publish an ambiguous editorial stating that Naypyidaw should not serve as Beijing’s role model.

“China should follow the trend of the times and look at the practical situation of the nation,” read an opinion piece in Tuesday’s the Global Times. “Rather than being perplexed and even letting backwater countries like Myanmar and Vietnam become our idols.”

RelatedPosts

Myanmar’s KNU Distances Itself From Ex-Chairman Who Met With Junta Boss

Myanmar’s KNU Distances Itself From Ex-Chairman Who Met With Junta Boss

October 2, 2023
244
Myanmar’s Cash-Strapped Junta Hikes Taxes, Utilities Despite Surging Inflation

Myanmar’s Cash-Strapped Junta Hikes Taxes, Utilities Despite Surging Inflation

October 2, 2023
670
Blackouts Lengthen in Yangon as Power Crisis Worsens in Myanmar

Blackouts Lengthen in Yangon as Power Crisis Worsens in Myanmar

October 2, 2023
1.2k

“As for Myanmar, its burgeoning reforms are still very uncertain, and the effectiveness of various reform measures remains to be verified,” the editorial cautioned. “All of these are experimental, and boldness is actually the most prominent characteristic of Myanmar’s reform.”

The paper’s editorials, while anonymous, are generally understood to be written by its editor-in-chief Hu Xijin. “China has inspired its neighbors through reform and opening, now their reforms can inspire and touch China,” he wrote on his micro-blog on Tuesday.

“If Chinese media opened up, the Global Times would have to close shop,” renowned Beijing-based contemporary Chinese history scholar Lei Yi quipped while commenting on the editorial.

The government mouthpiece People’s Daily was more positive in its report quoting an unnamed Burmese journalist as saying that Monday was a “great day” for the domestic media. The article written by its Bangkok correspondent Sun Guangyong noted that sensitive issues such as the ethnic conflicts are still taboo.

“A wide range of interests—the government, the military, ethnic minorities and the international community—will be affected by media freedom,” Yin Hongwei, a Kunming-based journalist, told The Irrawaddy. In the new environment, “China’s interests are bound to trigger new enmities.”

Yin, who has covered Burmese news from Yunnan Province for many years, said he expected the Burmese media to enter “a period of turmoil” in which the law should eventually delineate the limits of reporting.

Hu Shuli, the editor-in-chief of the business news weekly Caixin, cautioned that the opening of Burmese media freedom is limited. “The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division still continues to exist, and it continues to hold the power to stop publications and revoke publication permits,” Hu wrote on her microblog on Tuesday. She became an icon of challenging censorship in China since founding the investigative business magazine Caijing in 1998.

“The road towards a free press is by no means smooth,” an opinion piece on the Caijing website read on Tuesday. “But, at least, Burma has taken a first step.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists listed Burma as the seventh most censored country in the world in May with China as runner-up, calling the world’s second-largest economy “a model for censorship regimes elsewhere.”

On Tuesday, the Foreign Correspondents’ Clubs in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong issued a rare joint statement urging mainland Chinese authorities to “ensure that journalists are protected from violence and intimidation.”

The Chinese censorship system also shows the perils of more sophisticated forms of restricting the freedom to report sensitive issues, said Ying Zhu, the author of Two Billion Eyes: the Story of China Central Television.

“Besides the potential political consequences of ideologically sensitive reporting,” she told The Irrawaddy, “Chinese journalists are also vulnerable to libel suits, adding another measure of caution to journalists’ self-censorship impulse.”

“I can certainly foresee the sort of intricate dance Burmese journalists must perform as they test their boundaries of what is permissible by the authorities,” said the US-based Chinese media expert.

“‘I am so used to stopping when I still have more to say,’” she recalls a Chinese national television host telling her. “The kind of boundary-testing self-censorship has become the norm among Chinese media professionals as they try to balance the will of the party, the market and their professional instincts,” added Ying.

Shi Yonggang, chief editor of Hong Kong-based Phoenix Weekly, said on his microblog that Burma’s censors realized that a government’s role is to promote the media rather than control it. “This neighbor of ours is moving so fast and they are not waiting for us to catch up.”

Your Thoughts …
Previous Post

Foreigners Talk Shop at N.Korean Trade Fair

Next Post

ABSDF, Burma Army Clash in Kachin State

Patrick Boehler

Patrick Boehler

Similar Picks:

General Close to Myanmar Junta Boss Placed Under House Arrest, Interrogated for Corruption

General Close to Myanmar Junta Boss Placed Under House Arrest, Interrogated for Corruption

September 14, 2023
20.7k
Three Rebel Army Chiefs Predict Rapid Fall of Myanmar Junta

Three Rebel Army Chiefs Predict Rapid Fall of Myanmar Junta

August 18, 2023
15.7k
Three Myanmar Police Chiefs Sacked

Three Myanmar Police Chiefs Sacked

September 15, 2023
13.3k
Myanmar Junta’s Central Bank Had $6.8 Bn in Reserves at 14 Int’l Banks in March

Myanmar Junta’s Central Bank Had $6.8 Bn in Reserves at 14 Int’l Banks in March

August 21, 2023
13.2k
Power-Drunk Junta Tries Selling Myanmar Beer at Gunpoint

Power-Drunk Junta Tries Selling Myanmar Beer at Gunpoint

September 14, 2023
11.4k
Myanmar Resistance’s Next Steps are Clear; It’s the Junta’s that Aren’t

Myanmar Resistance’s Next Steps are Clear; It’s the Junta’s that Aren’t

August 8, 2023
10.6k
Load More
Next Post

ABSDF, Burma Army Clash in Kachin State

Mitsubishi to Open Naypyidaw Office

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Myanmar Coup Leader Fires Two Members of Junta’s Highest Body for Corruption

Myanmar Coup Leader Fires Two Members of Junta’s Highest Body for Corruption

6 days ago
2.5k
Myanmar’s Military Bogged Down in North as Resistance Rises

Myanmar’s Military Bogged Down in North as Resistance Rises

3 days ago
1.7k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Travel Sector Mocks Junta Tourist Claim

    Myanmar Travel Sector Mocks Junta Tourist Claim

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Blackouts Lengthen in Yangon as Power Crisis Worsens in Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar’s Cash-Strapped Junta Hikes Taxes, Utilities Despite Surging Inflation

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Dozens of Myanmar Junta Forces Killed in Three Days of Resistance Attacks

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Junta Boss Issues Warning as Corruption Scandal Engulfs Myanmar Regime 

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Features
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.